Soul Sister Time

            No one knows better than my own children that I can become intrusive into your soul.  I often disregard their sacred space in my enthusiasm for them to know the love I have come to know from God.  My new husband is getting used to this and loving me anyway in spite of my passion.  I am trying to become more aware of my inappropriate intrusions and listen to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit leads me to the best ways to share my spiritual truth.             All that said, I sense that what I am about to write about will intrude into your sacred space.  My passion for this subject may be a bit out of control.  I can’t help myself…I just have to write about it.  We Christians are as a group far too inoculated to the effect of the cross on our souls.             In preparatio...

            God’s love is so powerful that it can even penetrate the hearts of us puny humans and enlarge our capacity for love.  We see this in the Easter story.  Those who show their love for God do so in irrational ways at Easter.  It makes me think, what has been my most irrational act of love?             Though the Pharisees followed each word of the Bible, they followed irrational commands without love that led to emptiness.  That is not the love I’m talking about.  There is no soul transformation in that kind of behavior.  True acts of love are not done to make you think you are worthy of God’s love.  They are not done to make you feel better than other people.              The infectious love of Easter is never found in human effort.  It only begins with an ir...

            There are two major themes of the Lenten season and they are the same themes that Jesus taught throughout His ministry; repent and believe.  These same lessons are meant to be a part of every day we live.  They come into focus during the Lenten season when we are preparing our hearts for believing in the greatest miracle of love the world has ever known.             God asks us to repent because He loves.  He doesn’t require that we repent of every minor offense that we have committed.  He knows we cannot even see how deeply sinful we are.  Even when we are being good, we are not purely good, perhaps seeking a little too much glory for ourselves.  Only God knows the true truth depths of our sins (Jeremiah 17:9).  He simply asks that we look at His holiness and recognize how impossible it is for us to look at His purity without...

            As the Lenten Season draws to a close approaching Holy Week, can you look back and honestly admit that you are the chief sinner?   I hope so.   There is no spiritual lesson as helpful as seeing your own sin as so hideous that it sent Jesus Christ to the cross.   When you bundle up all the sins that others have sinned against you in this year—none compares to your lifetime of personal sin against a Holy God.             I attended the Forgiveness Sunday service at the Orthodox Church that precedes their Lenten journey.   There is a special liturgy that is used for this service focusing on the reality that each of us are grave sinners.   The closing of this time of prayer is when the clergy come out in their black robes (the beautiful purple is laid aside.)   Then beginning with the head priests, and assistant priests each person in...